Tuesday, 23 July 2013

It took Europe a year
before they, in their infinite wisdom, sanctioned “the military wing” of
Hezbollah as if the rest of the Hezbollah body is beyond reproach and not
tainted by terror.

Europe is desperately in
need of an education in counter-terrorism.

There are nations in
Europe, with reasons that are hard to fathom, who are unable to put the words “Hezbollah”
and “terror” together, despite all the overwhelming evidence. Others, to
a limited degree, prefer a selection process going through the Party of God’s
personnel and defining them as terrorists, or not. It’s absurd.

That’s what happens when
you have a committee of twenty seven members. You look for consensus and end up
compromising. Compromise is, literally, a fatal flaw when it comes to defining
and fighting terror, but this is precisely what Europe has done. Affirmative clarity is needed, not a watered
down definition that satisfies bureaucrats, a political-correctness that defies
logic and knowledge, and even the terror organization itself. Peoples’ lives
are at stake here.

As I wrote in an earlier
article, there is no “Good Hezbollah, bad Hezbollah.” You cannot
cherry-pick parts of a terror regime, but this is what Europe has done in their
infinite ignorance.

Under the chinless
leadership of Catherine Ashton, the EU is blundering from one crisis to the
next like a blind bull in a china shop, breaking all the rules by setting new,
ineffective, and damaging ones, which cause immense damage, and achieves
nothing of lasting value.

We recently had the
Ashton-led directives that arrogantly call parts of Israel including Jerusalem,
with its ancient Jewish heritage sites and its modern day scientific, medical,
academic, and archeological landmarks, as being non-Israeli. This decision
rewards a violent and rejectionist Palestinian society, with a decades-old
history of terror, by punishing Israel and siding with them in a unilateral
move precisely at the most sensitive moment in the peace process. It will
certainly make the Palestinian leadership less flexible in any future
Kerry-inspired peace talks with Israel. Why should they be more moderate than
the Europeans who have just set the ground rules?

If that blunder was not
bad enough, we now have the European Union letting Hezbollah off the hook by
isolating what they call “the military wing” while keeping the rest of
that hideous body intact. Their
inability to call a spade a spade and Hezbollah, in its entirety, s a terror organization,
leaves Hezbollah chief, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, laughing all the way to his
Beirut bank. His “political wing”
can continue fund-raising and recruitment in Europe as if nothing has
happened. He, and his henchmen, will be
considered politicians by the gnomes of Brussels, allowing Hezbollah to
regroup, gather strength, continue their operations in Syria, and plan future
operations around the globe, carefully avoiding Europe so as not to upset the
Ashton committee.

If it wasn’t so seriously
tragic, this EU foreign policy would be farcical.

What is to be done with a
Europe headed by politicians and bureaucrats who are apparently so ignorant, or
cynical, of what constitutes a terrorist organization, and incapable of coming
up with a precise definition and effective sanctions. Why is it only Israel,
the United States, Canada, and a few other nations, that can plainly see what
is in front of their noses?

Israel and America are all
too familiar with the Hezbollah leadership and infrastructure, their operating
methods, and the inter-connection between all departments that implicate the
organization in its entirety in the acts of terror from the political
assassination of Prime Minister Hariri in Beirut to the attempted assassination
of the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, to the blowing up of the Jewish Center
in Buenos Aires to the Bulgarian bus bombing, and the preparation of terror
attacks on European soil, including in Cyprus, not to mention their involvement
in the Syrian slaughter.

To imply that the “military
wing” of a terror regime is to be sanctioned while leaving the “political
wing” to operate is akin to the Allies blaming the Wermacht for World War
Two while exonerating Hitler and Nazi Germany. This is as plainly absurd as
isolating a “military” branch of Hezbollah while leaving Nasrallah and
his cronies to continue their mayhem.

This was brought home this
week when the Hezbollah Al-Mana TV channel revealed details of the kidnapping
and killing of two Israeli soldiers inside Israel by Hezbollah that led to the
2006 Lebanon War. Sheikh Nasrallah said that he would never have ordered the
operation had he known it would have produced the powerful and destructive
reaction of Israel to that incident. This clearly demonstrates the link between
the political ordering and approval of the terror attack and the military
operation itself.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader,
Naim Qassam, said in 2009 that the “same leadership that directs the
parliamentary and government work also leads jihad actions in the struggle
against Israel.”

This was confirmed very
recently by Lebanon’s Foreign Minister, Adnan Mansour, when he said that
Hezbollah’s military wing was “an integral part of the political system.” He
added, “Hezbollah’s political and military wing cannot be separated.”

What greater proof can
there be of the link between politicians and active terrorists in a terror
regime than Yasser Arafat. Arafat may be seen in myopian Europe as a
charismatic leader, but Israelis saw, experienced, and suffered from his handiwork
up close and personal. He was the godfather of modern terrorism, and the
world’s first Islamic arch-terrorist. He wreaked death and havoc in Israel,
Jordan, Lebanon, and even from his exile in Tunis. He was the patron of
disparate and competing Palestinian terror groups. When he decided to launch
his infamous and deadly intifada against Israel he ordered and equipped
Islamist Hamas and Islamic Jihad on a murderous wave of suicide and car
bombings against innocent Israeli civilians. He was a politician and a terror
chief.

One would have thought
that European politicians would have absorbed this truth firsthand that both
politics and terrorism are part of the same body after Arafat murdered
passengers at Rome and Vienna airports, not to mention the Palestinian attack
on the Munich Olympic Games in a deadly assault against the Israeli athletes,
ordered by Arafat and the PLO.

It seems that EU
politicians are still in need of an education.

Clearly Europe needs an
education on the definition, motivation, operation methods, and structure of
terror groups, including Hezbollah. This includes their political and religious
aims, recruitment and funding, their intelligence gathering, their training and
equipment, their command and control structure with its intimate linkage
between their “political” and “military” arms that connect
together as one indivisible organization.

I strongly recommend that
a team of top Israeli and American counter-terror experts make the rounds of
European capitals and meet with politicians and think tanks in closed door
seminars and conferences. They should start their tour at the European Union
headquarters in Brussels and address their parliament. The education process
should begin immediately before further retreat takes place in the war against
terror.

The EU decision of
sanctions against a part of Hezbollah was partly a product of cooperation
between the Israeli Foreign Office and European governments. It must not stop
there.

Detailed intelligence
briefings by Israeli and American counter-terror chiefs, countries who are on
the frontline in the war on terror, will give European politicians, national
security and legal experts, something substantial on which to base current and
future sanctions against terrorist organizations.

There is much that can be
done to help Europe on the right path of counter-terrorism. The EU lacks the
bureaucratic infrastructure, like the US Treasury counter-terrorism financial capability,
without which it will fail to damage Hezbollah in any meaningful way. Europe
can learn so much from agencies that have close-combat experience with groups
such as Hezbollah. Intelligence sharing, including understanding the roles and
movement of operatives, and the dots that connect funding and terror, will go a
long way to curtailing the ability of terror groups to inflict harm beyond
their borders.

I urge European
parliaments to learn from Israeli and American counter-terror experts why it is
wrong to compartmentalize parts of terror organizations and, instead,
understand why it is so vital to address the combined agenda of the
organization as a whole.

Europe must be educated as
to why Hezbollah, all of Hezbollah, is tagged as a terrorist organization in
its entirety, and apply this to all other groups that incite and practice the
death of innocents for political and religious goals. Simply isolating “the
military wing” will not cut it.

Barry Shaw is the Special
Consultant on Delegtimization Issues to The Strategic Dialogue Center at
Netanya Academic College. He is also the author of “Israel Reclaiming the
Narrative.” www.israelnarrative.com

Monday, 22 July 2013

It has taken them a year
and they are still unable to properly define Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Europe is desperately in
need of an education in counter-terrorism.

There are nations in
Europe, with reasons that are hard to fathom, who are unable to put the words “Hezbollah”
and “terror” together, despite all the overwhelming evidence. Others do
– to a limited degree.

That’s what happens when
you have a committee of twenty seven members. You look for consensus and end up
compromising. Compromise is a fatal flaw when it comes to defining and fighting
terror, but this is precisely what Europe is doing. Affirmative clarity is needed, not a watered
down definition that satisfies bureaucrats, and even the terror organization
itself. Peoples’ lives are at stake here.

As I wrote in my article “Good
Hezbollah, bad Hezbollah”, you cannot hold a selection process by
cherry-picking parts of a terror regime, but this is what Europe is doing in
their infinite ignorance.

They have decided to pick on what they call "the military wing" of Hezbollah, neatly allowing the leaders of this terror gang to continue their deadly preparation work.

Under the chinless
leadership of Catherine Ashton, the EU is blundering from one crisis to the
next like a blind bull in a china shop, breaking all the rules by setting new,
ineffective, and damaging ones, causing immense damage, and achieving nothing
of lasting value. We have the Ashton-led directives that arrogantly call parts
of Israel as being non-Israeli, a decision that rewards a violent and
rejectionist Palestinian society, with a decades-old history of terror, by
punishing Israel and siding with Palestinians in a unilateral move precisely at
the most sensitive moment in the peace process.

If that blunder was not
bad enough, we now have the European Union letting Hezbollah off the hook by
isolating what they call “the military wing” while keeping the rest
intact. Their inability to call a spade
a spade and Hezbollah, in its entirety, as a terror organization, leaves Hezbollah
chief, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, laughing all the way to his Beirut bank. His “political wing” can continue
fund-raising and recruitment in Europe as if nothing has happened. He, and his henchmen, will be considered
politicians by the gnomes of Brussels even as Hezbollah gathers strength, continue
their operations in Syria, and plan future operations around the globe,
carefully avoiding Europe so as not to upset the Ashton committee.

If it wasn't so seriously
tragic, this EU foreign policy would be farcical.

What is to be done with a
Europe headed by politicians and bureaucrats who are apparently so ignorant, or
cynical, of what constitutes a terrorist organization, and incapable of coming
up with a precise definition and effective sanctions that it infuriates Israel,
the United States, Canada, and other nations that can plainly see what is in
front of their noses?

Clearly Europe needs an
education on the definition, motivation, operation methods, and structure of
terror groups, especially Hezbollah. This includes their political and religious
aims, recruitment and funding, their intelligence gathering, their training and
equipment, their command and control structure with its intimate linkage
between their “political” and “military” arms that connect
together as one indivisible organization.

I strongly recommend that
a team of top Israeli and American counter-terror experts make the rounds of
European capitals and meet with politicians and think tanks in closed door
seminars and conferences. They should start their tour at the European Union
headquarters in Brussels and address their parliament. The education process
should begin immediately before further damage is done in the war of terror.

Israel and America are all
too familiar with the Hezbollah leadership and infrastructure, their operating
methods, and the inter-connection between all departments that implicate the
organization in its entirety in the acts of terror from the political
assassination of Prime Minister Hariri in Beirut to the attempted assassination
of the Saudi Ambassador in Washington, to the blowing up of the Jewish Center
in Buenos Aires to the Bulgarian bus bombing, and the preparation of terror
attacks on European soil including in Cyprus, not to mention their involvement
in the Syrian slaughter.

To imply that the “military
wing” of a terror regime is to be sanctioned while leaving the “political
wing” to operate is akin to the Allies blaming the Wermacht for World War
Two while exonerating Hitler and Nazi Germany. This is as plainly absurd as
isolating a “military” branch of Hezbollah while leaving Nasrallah and his cronies to continue their
mayhem.

This was brought home this
week when the Hezbollah Al-Mana TV channel revealed details of the kidnapping
and killing of two Israeli soldiers inside Israel by Hezbollah that led to the
2006 Lebanon War. Sheikh Nasrallah said that he would never have ordered the
operation had he known it would have produced the powerful and destructive
reaction of Israel to the incident. This clearly demonstrates the link between
the political ordering and approval of the terror attack and the military
operation itself.

What greater proof can
there be of the link between politicians and active terrorists in a terror
regime than Yasser Arafat. Arafat may be seen in myopia Europe as a charismatic
leader but to Israelis who have seen his handiwork up close and personal he was
the godfather of modern terrorism and the world’s first Islamic arch-terrorist.
He wreaked death and havoc in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and even from his exile
in Tunis.

He was the patron of disparate
and competing Palestinian terror groups. When he decided to launch his infamous
and deadly intifada against Israel he ordered and equipped Islamist Hamas and
Islamic Jihad on a murderous wave of suicide and car bombings against innocent
Israeli civilians.

One would have thought
that European politicians would have firsthand that both politics and terrorism
are part of the same body after Arafat murdered passengers at Rome and Vienna
airports and attacked the Munich Olympic Games in a deadly assault against the
Israeli athletes.

It seems that EU
politicians are still in need of an education.

Detailed intelligence
briefings by Israeli and American counter-terror chiefs, who are on the
frontline in the war on terror, will give European politicians, national security
and legal experts something substantial on which to base current and future
sanctions against terrorist organizations.

I urge European
parliaments to learn from Israeli and American counter-terror experts the
reasons it is wrong to compartmentalize parts of terror organizations and,
instead, understand why it is so vital to address the combined agenda of the
organization as a whole.

As former Canadian Justice
Minister, Irwin Cotler, put it, “it is the European Union’s obligation, not
just a policy option, to put Hezbollah on the terrorist list. It is shocking
that it has not yet happened. It is a paradox that the EU wins the Nobel Peace
Prize, holds itself up as a human rights leader, but has not put Hezbollah on
the terrorist list, although combating terror is a fundamental principle of
human rights.”

Europe must be educated as
to why Hezbollah, all of Hezbollah, is tagged as a terrorist organization in
its entirety.

Barry Shaw is the Special
Consultant on Delegtimization Issues to The Strategic Dialogue Center at
Netanya Academic College. He is also the author of “Israel Reclaiming the
Narrative.” www.israelnarrative.com

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

We have arrived at the moment that most of us reckoned we
would never see.

Jews were prevented from praying at the Temple Mount on
Tisha Be-Av, which commemorates the double destruction of the Jewish Temple in
Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the Romans.

The jury is still out as to whether the Israeli Government
took this step out of respect for angry Muslims, or out of fear of angry
Muslims. Either way, Jews were prevented
from carrying out their religious obligations on one of Judaism’s most solemn
days to assuage the feelings of Palestinian Arabs and Muslim outrage.

On the same day of Tisha Be-Av, one of the most sorrowful days
in the Jewish calendar, the European Union announced an official policy of
banning and restricting the products of Jewish industry from the heartland of
Israel, including Jerusalem.

How often have European diplomats and politicians wrongly forecast events occurring in the Middle East?

What they called ‘the Arab
Spring’ turned into ‘the Islamic Winter’. Didn't they force Israel to allow Arafat, the world’s first Islamic arch-terrorist, to
return from his enforced exile in Tunis by acclaiming him as Israel’s peace
partner? He spoke about ‘peace of the brave’ as they awarded him with their
Nobel peace prize, but he gave us ‘peace of the grave’ as soon as he
landed in Ramallah. Didn't they
encourage us to forcefully uproot eight thousand Jewish men, women, and children from their homes in the
Strip in the name of peace with the Palestinians, and didn't we get Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets
instead?

Now they have the chutzpah to aim an EU directive banning
their European members “from cooperating with Israeli entities in the West
Bank, Golan Heights, and east Jerusalem.”

As Daniel Seaman, of the Prime Minister’s Office, reminded
us on his Facebook page, “the Europeans found an unequivocal voice when it comes
to Israel, but still can't declare the Hezbollah a terrorist entity.
Ironically, while Europeans try to define our ancestral borders, the Muslims
are redefining theirs.”

But they are. They
have officially declared what they call the West Bank (but Jews call Judea and
Samaria), and east Jerusalem, are no longer part of the State of Israel.

See how they have twisted historical fact and legitimacy.
In their eyes, the Jewish homeland went from being mandated for the National Home of the Jewish People to
become “disputed territory” when land
was recaptured from the Jordanians in 1967 after yet another aggressive Arab
war was launched against the nascent Jewish state. This land has since
transmuted into “occupied territories” as the Europeans act to appease
radical Palestinian Arab voices. When
did fact, history, and legal definition dissolve into the lies, false
definition, and anti-Israel action that has become new law in Europe - new law that for citizens of the Jewish state seem eerily akin to Nuremburg laws?

What happened to European patience, and a desire to allow
the current peace initiative to take root? What happened to the Road Map that
demanded no side to take unilateral action that may affect the outcome of
negotiations? Instead of a quiet and
orderly diplomatic route to negotiations we now have the heavy one-sided hand
of European bias against Israel. As usual, it is dressed up in fine language to
make it appear that they are taking altruistic steps for the good of the
region.

Europe! You are not Israel’s parents any more, and we are
not little children forced to take your nasty tasting medicine because you
insist it is good for us. You are wrong,
and you should not be surprised if Israel refuses to quietly take your gruesome
medicine, and here is one reason we will not do so.

On
December 10, 2012, the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council stated that “all
agreements between the State of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and
explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel
in 1967.”

Taken at face value, this means that the Western Wall of
the Jewish Temple, which was liberated from Jordan in 1967, and where I have
just celebrated a family barmitzvah, and where many thousands of Jews from
around the world commemorated Tisha B’Av, the double destruction of our holy
Temple, is part of a new EU directive that states it is no longer a part of the
Jewish State of Israel.

This alone should have outrage world Jewry. Rage and fury
should also bring out millions of Christians that identify with an ancient heritage
that no EU diplomat dare overturn.

Earlier this year I wrote an article that appeared in the
Jerusalem Post. It was entitled, “Palestinian flags flying over Jerusalem.”
It detailed the significant real estate
sites that will eventually fall into the hands of Hamas when outside
misguided forces side with Palestinian bad intent. When writing that piece I
never thought one such decisive step would be taken by Europe within such a few
short months of publication. Have I become a modern day Jeremiah?

The EU blunder has
brought this terrible moment that bit closer. The Hebrew University, the
Rockefeller Museum, Hadassah Hospital are, by definition of the new EU ruling,
now prime targets for a European boycott.

These shining institutes of Israeli
brilliance are no longer considered Israeli by the European Union who are now in lockstep with the Arabs and Muslim world. Jews
are seriously under siege at the heart of their heritage.

We are not just talking here about Israeli industry in
disputed territories that must remain as part of Israel in any future peace
agreement, industries that employ in excess of thirty thousand Palestinian
workers in a display of mutual respect and cooperation, building a better
future for both Jew and Arab. Surely that in itself is what true peacemakers
should applaud?

Instead, the European threat will put an end
to such positive steps that have given so many Palestinians a better life. The
European ultimatum also targets Israeli research, academic, and medical centers,
that do so much good for mankind, and now lies at the foot of the European
guillotine.

And the Europeans think this is in the best interest of
people in the region. That have been oh so wrong it the past. They are dead
wrong today! The are acting as peacemakers against peace, the title of yet another recent article of mine. It seems my prophecies are, sadly, coming true.

Jews of Israel feel themselves under siege by Palestinian
rejectionism and terror. Now add to that the new European compliance with an
agenda that reduces the Jewish presence, salami-style, from their Jewish
heartland, without any commitment on the Palestinian side to permanent peace.

Europeans find nothing wrong with that, in their muddle-headed thinking that is
openly biased against Israel but does nothing to force the Palestinian
leadership into accepting and agreeing that Israel has a right to exist.

Such a policy will result in failure and bloodshed. As we have seen in the
recent past, such short-sighted, distorted, action always ends in Palestinian
violence and Jewish deaths.

I pray to G-d that this prediction does not come true.

Due to European altruistic actions towards the
Palestinian Arabs, Israeli Jews are under siege, under threat, and more isolated than
ever. The future is bleak.

Barry Shaw is the Special Consultant on Delegitimization
Issues to The Strategic dialogue Center at Netanya Academic College. He was also the co-founder of the Netanya
Terror Victims Organization, and author
of “Israel Reclaiming the Narrative.”www.israelnarrative.com